Tangled Heros
by Forever-Tangled
Summary: Time travel's possible, and the Big Hero 6 bring a long-haired girl with a certain thief into the future as an experiment. But when that experiment goes wrong, what happens next? Terrible at summaries, rated T just in case (violence). EugenexRapunzel, idea where Honey Lemon is their great[...] granddaughter.
1. Chapter 1

"Who are you, and how did you find me?"  
>"Ah-hah..." the ruffian said absentmindedly. She had to admit, he <em>was <em>fairly handsome - but what was he doing here? How had he found her?  
>"How did you find me?" she repeated the question, pulling back her frying pan and threatening him with it.<br>His eyebrows furrowed, obviously in an attempt to woo the girl. "I know not who you are, nor how I came to find you, but may I just say...hi." he grinned. He knew she wouldn't be able to resist his smile.

Was something wrong with the man's face? Was he...baring his teeth at her..? What an odd expression that was on his face! As he continued on, asking her how her day was going and introducing himself as Flynn Rider, she only grew irritated and confused.  
>"Who else knows my location, <em>Flynn Rider<em>?" she asked, nearly mocking him.  
>"Alright, Blondie-"<br>"Rapunzel," she corrected through her teeth, holding her pan towards him. She'd knock him out again if she had to.  
>He paused, trying to decide what she'd said. "Gesundheit. Anyway-"<p>

A loud whirring noise suddenly filled the room. Both the girl and the thief looked at the mirror, which had a translucent quality behind it. The whirring sound grew stronger and stronger. Wind filled the tower, sucking at everything in the tower. Pascal clung to Rapunzel's shoulder, clicking his tongue worriedly.  
>"What's that?"<br>Was this normal? Had the man cast a spell? Rapunzel turned her wide green eyes towards the man and waited for a response, but he looked as stumped as she was.  
>"Untie me."<br>"Why? Did you do something? Are you-are you going to-"  
>"Untie me - that thing's going to suck us in and neither of us know where it will take us, Blondie! We need to get outta here!" Flynn yelled over the noise. The girl's hair was being pulled towards the mirror as they spoke.<br>She nodded, dropping her pan and kneeling to start unwrapping her hair from the chair. The force grew stronger, and she hunkered down on the floor, clutching the chair.  
>"Hurry up, would you?" Flynn yelped. "Or untie my hands, I'll untangle myself!"<br>"I'm trying," she cried. She'd never wanted this! Had _she _done something? Her hands were shaking. She'd never been this afraid before! Pascal was sucked towards the mirror. Gasping, Rapunzel jumped up and tried to grab him. She was pulled in as well, and then Flynn, chair and all, went hurtling through space.

Rapunzel fell on the floor, rolling a few feet and coughing, violently trying to drag in a breath. The contraption behind her spewed Flynn, chair and all, out, and he fell with a hard _thud _on the floor near her. Gasping, she gathered the strength to crawl over to him, hurrying to disentangle him from her hair.  
>"Are you okay? I'm-I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to-" her slim fingers shook as she worked at the knots she'd tied in her hair.<br>"I'm fine," he scrambled away from her as soon as her hair was untied from the chair.  
>"It worked!"<br>They both turned to look behind them. Five humans and a huge white thing stood nearby, behind a glass pane. They all wore odd pieces of clothing, and a boy was holding Pascal, who seemed to be no worse for wear.  
>"I will evaluate their vital signs." the white thing shuffled towards them, and Rapunzel stood up, grabbing Flynn's arm and pulling him up as well.<br>"Stay back!" she cried, looking around for her frying pan. _Drat! _It was across the room, and a tall girl that looked much like herself was holding it!  
>"I will scan you now. Scan complete. Your vital signs are normal, but your heart rate is accelerated. I suggest-"<br>"I said stay back!" she was shaking all over now. What _was _that thing?  
>A boy, who was smaller than she, hurried over. "I'm Hiro Hamada, and this is Baymax. Don't be scared."<br>"Where are we?" Flynn asked. He glanced towards Blondie and almost felt bad for her. _Almost. _She was shivering all over, though she was standing in front of him, almost in a protective manner. The machine behind them made another sound, and his satchel went sailing over their heads. He watched with horror as the crown spewed out of the satchel, clattering across the floor.  
>Great.<br>Screw who all these people were, or even where he was at, he needed that satchel _now!_ Maybe this new kingdom would offer a better price for the Lost Princess of Corona's crown.  
>He ran for it, grabbing the crown and hastily stuffing it into his satchel. Slinging the satchel strap across his torso, he held it protectively.<p>

"We're in SanFransokyo."  
>"SanFranwherenow?" Flynn watched the short boy warily. He could take him out in a second, standing well over a foot taller than he.<br>The boy's brown eyes looked excited.  
>"SanFransokyo! Welcome to the twenty-first century!" he grinned, revealing a gap between his two front teeth.<br>"The...wait." the man furrowed his brows, staring at them. Rapunzel shuddered. What was the twenty-first century? The building they were in? She glanced around, almost curious, but still too scared to look around.  
>"Time travel!" the tall girl raced over, the frying pan still in her hand. "It's possible! You just traveled about three hundred years into the future!"<br>Pascal leapt from the boy's hands and sprinted over to Rapunzel, burying himself in her hair and making agitated noises, changing colors to camouflage himself.  
>"Who are you all? How did you find us?" Rapunzel asked. She tried to scrape up the courage to sound intimidating.<br>"Freddie," the boy that had held Pascal strode over, grinning. "If you want to talk nerd, I'm your man."  
><em>Nerd<em>? What was a nerd? She furrowed her brows in confusion, but tried to smile kindly.  
>"GoGo Tomago." the short, black-haired girl held two fingers up in a salute, but didn't move from the chair she straddled.<br>"And I'm Honey Lemon! You already met Hiro," she had a pretty accent of some sort, and seemed to have a personality a lot like Rapunzel's.  
><em>Oh, spectacular. Two of them, <em>Flynn thought, groaning inwardly.  
>"I'm Wasabi." a dark-skinned, husky male with dreadlocks waved, but he still stayed behind the glass pane, wearing funny-looking, clear contraptions over his eyes.<br>"Hello," Rapunzel said awkwardly, glancing towards the tall man behind her as if he would help her somehow. "But...how did we get here?"  
>"Time travel, of course!" Honey repeated before rattling on about some science-y stuff.<br>"Okay, yeah, sure, but how do we get back?" Flynn asked.  
>The room went silent.<br>"We, ah, haven't figured it out yet."  
>Rapunzel's eyes widened. "I have to get back to Mother! This would <em>kill <em>her!" she cried.  
>"We'll figure something out, but why don't we talk about why we brought you here in the first place?" Hiro asked.<br>"What?"  
>"Your mother's..." Honey glanced towards Hiro, and he shook his head. She seemed to change what she was about to say. "Well...Mother Gothel's here. In the twenty-first century."<br>"How?" Rapunzel asked, brightening. She might learn how to live in this new environment if Mother was here! Maybe if she escaped, she'd show her Mother that she could take care of herself.  
>"It was an accident. She's at large now, and we need your help containing her." Wasabi called.<br>"Containing her?"  
>"She's-wait. You don't know, do you?" Hiro asked.<br>"Know _what?_" Flynn broke in, disgusted. No way were these little imps telling the truth - this whole thing was way too mixed up.  
>He took a deep breath, holding up a finger, but Honey Lemon broke in, excitedly explaining the whole situation. "You guys don't know it yet, but I'm your great-great-great-great-...great...granddaughter! My great-grandfather was Latino, and that's how I come by the accent, but that's another story."<br>"How can you be our...you know...descendant?"  
>"You get married! It's <em>so <em>cute!" she exclaimed, clapping her hands.  
>Rapunzel swung around to look at Flynn, her eyes wide. "What?"<br>She squeaked. "We have a history book explaining it _all_, but we can't show you right now. We were trying to test something out: if fate would play out regardless of the situation or environment, so we brought my great-great-great-great-great grandparents to the future to find out!"  
>"You're lying. No <em>way <em>did I end up marrying her," Flynn stepped back, clutching the satchel that held the crown. Maybe they could send him back in time and let him find the Lost Princess of Corona: _that _would be a paycheck!  
>"But you <em>do<em>!" Honey giggled. "And-"  
>Hiro broke her off. "But we need your help finding Gothel. She was never meant to get away. Your-Gothel-well, she, ah, she...isn't suitable for this world. It's dangerous for her to be out there at large. Something could happen."<p>

It wasn't entirely a lie. Something _could _happen. But he couldn't tell the girl that Gothel was an evil woman who had kidnapped her as a baby; she likely wouldn't believe it. And she wasn't suitable for her to be at large because she was...well...Gothel.

Rapunzel's eyes widened. "Okay. We'll help."  
>"<em>We<em>?" Flynn protested. "No - she's your mother. I didn't sign up for any of this - you took me _hostage_!"  
>"You <em>have <em>to come. At least until we get a new portal figured out," Hiro said.  
>"Plus, we have to see if our experiment is true!" Honey Lemon added.<br>Flynn nodded, suddenly realizing that Honey Lemon was a lot like Rapunzel: naive. "And what if it doesn't?"  
>"Well...once you're sent back to your original time, there's a chance you might not fall in love. I might not even exist by the end of the day, but it's a risk I'm definitely willing to take. Who gets the chance to see their great-great-great-great-great-grandparents fall in love?!" she giggled.<p>

Flynn's new mission: Make sure he didn't fall for the big-eyed, long-haired girl. That shouldn't be too hard.  
>Plus, find a pawn shop around here. Maybe he could stay in the future times, make a better name for himself, and end up with an island of his own...in complete solidarity and rolling in dough. Yeah, that sounded like a pretty good plan.<p> 


	2. Chapter 2

"What now?" Rapunzel asked. "Can't you...I don't know...track her or something?"  
>Hiro shook his head. "We don't know where she is. She has to be in San Fransokyo, though."<br>"But it's a huge city," Wasabi added.  
>Rapunzel's eyes widened in fear. What if they didn't find her mother? She <em>couldn't <em>lose her mother!  
>"Hey, Goldilocks, don't worry. We'll figure this out!" Fred came and slung an arm casually around the girl's slim shoulders. She jumped in surprise.<br>"M-my name's Rapunzel."  
>"Yeah, but your nickname's Goldilocks." Fred grinned.<br>She stared at him in confusion before slipping away from him awkwardly. What exactly was a nick name?  
>"Just kick him," GoGo called from a corner, snapping a bubble that appeared from her mouth.<p>

This new reality was weird.

Eugene ran his hand through his hair, grabbing tufts of his own hair to pull in frustration. "Why don't you just send us back and clean up your own mess?"  
>"Because we need <em>her <em>to find Mother Gothel," Hiro jerked his thumb towards Rapunzel. "Before she can cause any trouble."  
>"Mother would <em>never <em>cause trouble!" Rapunzel jumped to Mother Gothel's defense.  
>"Well.." Honey Lemon started to speak up, but she cleared her throat and bit her lip to keep whatever she'd been wanting to say in.<p>

After the team discussed their game plan, they set out in search of Mother Gothel.  
>"Wait, wait wait!" Honey Lemon stopped Rapunzel nearly as soon as she left the building. "You two need to fit in. And...your hair..."<br>Rapunzel glanced at her long locks protectively. "Wh-what about my hair?"  
>"You'll need to braid it up so it doesn't get stomped on. And you need to come to my house - we'll get you fixed up in some clothes straight away! Ohh, this'll be so much fun!"<br>"O-okay," Rapunzel laughed, letting the tall blonde lead her off.  
>Eugene shook his head. He <em>was not <em>letting anyone make him dress differently. He hugged his satchel protectively to his side.  
>"Hey, kid."<br>"Huh?" Hiro glanced up at him, a screwdriver held between his teeth as he packed a bag and fiddled with something simultaneously.  
>"You know where there'd be any black markets around here?"<br>"Sorry, no. You're coming with us."  
>"You know, I could make you rich beyond belief if I get to sell this thing," he made his way over to the pipsqueak of a kid, flashing open his satchel just enough to show the glimmering gems of the crown he held inside of it. Hiro's eyes widened. "We'd split the loot and be on our separate ways."<br>Hiro shook his head so hard his thick black hair trembled. "No. You've _got _to come with us. It's kind of my fault this whole thing went awry, and I can't let Honey Lemon suffer the consequences."  
>"Why do you even care about her? She's older than you, and so annoying! And if you think for a minute that I'm gonna fall in love with that-that...Blondie, I hate to tell you bud, but you're out of luck and your history books are flawed."<br>"She was my brother's girlfriend before he died," Hiro said curtly. "And our history books are definitely not flawed. We have DNA tests to prove it if you want to see."  
>"DNA?" Eugene scoffed, shaking his head.<br>"Look, Eugene-"  
>"How do you know my name?" It scared him now. Scared him out of his wits. Nobody knew his name except for him and his dead mother.<br>"History books," Hiro grinned, displaying a tooth gap that Eugene wanted to widen via a good punch in the face.  
>Rolling his eyes and groaning, Eugene sat down on some sort of squishy blob of a chair and waited.<p>

Pretty soon, Rapunzel and Honey Lemon returned. Rapunzel's hair was braided and bundled up her back, leaving the end of her incredibly long hair tickling her ankles. She wore a fitted pink shirt and jeans, but she was still barefoot.  
>"We ready to go?" Eugene asked. He wanted to get this over with as soon as possible.<br>"Yep!" Wasabi strode past, hitching a small pack over his back. The rest of the team did so as well, and Hiro handed Eugene and Rapunzel their own. Pascal rode on Baymax's shoulder, and Rapunzel fully trusted the odd balloon man to take care of her chameleon friend.

As they walked down the streets of San Fransokyo, she tried to strike up a conversation with the man she'd taken hostage earlier that day. "So...Flynn. Where're you from?"  
>"Whoa, whoa, Blondie. I don't do backstory, okay? However, I'm becoming pretty interested in yours. Why is your mother such a-a danger?"<br>"She's not a danger," she shook her head. "She'd never..." She trailed off. Her mother _would _hurt a fly. She'd fallen victim to multiple beatings on her mother's accord, due to some things she supposed were dreadful and she should have never done or brought up, such as asking about where her father was or when she could go outside, or why she always felt better after having being sung to. "She'd never hurt anyone," she finished, but just barely.  
>"Hmm." Eugene shook his head. Something was up.<p>

That's approximately when the car crash happened.  
>Rapunzel gasped and pushed past the team, trying to see what had happened.<br>Mother Gothel was in the middle of the road, having it out with someone, and she'd apparently caused all of those metal carriages to crash into one another, causing a chain reaction. But who...?  
>"One of the Stabbington brothers?" Eugene breathed. Whirling towards the group of teens, he gestured at the scene. "How did <em>he <em>get here?"  
>"He-he must have been nearby Gothel when she stepped into the portal. Is he a good guy or a bad guy?"<br>"Bad! Very, very, bad. Ohh, this is bad. This is bad. This is _really _bad!" he ducked down so he couldn't be seen, grabbing Hiro's thin frame and pushing him so he could hide behind him.  
>"Oh, woman up!" GoGo rolled her eyes at the tall man that was literally hiding behind a five-foot-two fifteen year old.<br>In the confusion, Rapunzel pushed towards her mother.  
>"Mother! I was so scared!" she cried, running towards her mother.<br>"Rapunzel!" Gothel stared at her in surprise and an emotion Rapunzel couldn't quite place.  
>That's when the Stabbington brother, Roy, grabbed her.<br>As she screamed, a burlap bag was thrown over her head. In the confusion, none of the citizens noticed. Eugene and the rest of the group did, however.  
>"You grab her, we'll go get Rapunzel!" Hiro yelled, gesturing to Wasabi.<br>Wasabi nodded, pushing through the throng of people to capture Mother Gothel.  
>Eugene outdistanced the younger people as he ran for Roy. Sure, he had made a pact with himself, promising that he'd never, <em>ever <em>fall for that weird princess, but he couldn't let Roy get his hands on her, either! Who knows what would happen to her!  
>He tackled Roy, only to be knocked out as well. The menace slung him over his shoulder firefighter-style and disappeared with both of them before anyone from the Big Hero 6 could make sense of what had happened.<p> 


	3. Chapter 3

Eugene woke up, rubbing his head and groaning. His forehead throbbed where Roy's fist had connected. Remembering where he was and why he was there, he jumped up, letting his eyes flash around the room with concern. Blondie. Where was Blondie? All thoughts about his satchel, which was also absent, were pushed from his mind. He could only imagine what he was doing to the defenseless girl.  
>"Blondie?" he hissed. When there was no response - from Roy or the girl - he yelled it.<br>"I'm in here!" came a female grunt.  
>Bolting for the sound, he opened a door and saw the stick-thin blonde standing over Roy defensively, frying pan held out towards his unconscious body.<br>He gave the girl an incredulous stare. "What...?"  
>"He didn't think I'd find a pot. He also didn't expect me to knock him out with it," she puffed. She was obviously worked up over this.<br>"He didn't...hurt you, did he?"  
>"No," she shook her head, dropping the pan and wiping her shaky hands on her skirt. "Did he hurt you?"<br>He subconsciously ran his hand through his hair, wincing in pain. His hand grazed something wet, and he pulled it back to see blood on his fingers. He had to play tough guy, though, instead of freaking out over his bashed-in head.  
>She saw, though, and gasped. "Oh!" she nibbled her lip and stared at her hair. "A-are you okay?"<br>"Yes," he snapped. "Come on, now we have to figure out where we are and how to get back to the others. Unless...you want to split from those goons and figure out how to get home ourselves."  
>"No!" she stood up straight and stared at him evenly. "No, we're helping those kids."<br>He sighed. He'd tried. "Okay, Blondie. If that's what you want..."  
>"Yes. It is," she said firmly.<br>"Then let's try to figure out where we're at." he jerked his head towards the door, and she followed him dutifully outside right before Hiro came running down the sidewalk.  
>"Hiro!" Rapunzel exclaimed, rushing to greet him.<br>"There you are!" he cried. "We thought you'd made off without us!"  
>"Ohh, we'd <em>never <em>do that," Eugene shook his head, but Rapunzel sensed the sarcasm in his voice.  
>"Flynn, let him be," she said disapprovingly.<p>

* * *

><p>Evening came fast. The entire bunch crashed at Fred's mansion, which Eugene explored with curiosity. This was the closest he'd ever get to living in a castle. Rapunzel was sleeping curled up on a chaise, and he couldn't help but grin at the peaceful smile on her face - whoa. Where had that come from? He shook his head, passing a hand through his hair. It came back with dirty bits of blood, followed by a fresh trickle. Ugh. It throbbed, too. He glanced around the room, and saw Honey Lemon sprawled on the floor, odd contraptions crammed in her ears - she'd explained that they produced music. He didn't understand the concept. Hiro was cuddled up against that huge thing he called Baymax, and Fred was stretched on a couch. Wasabi was sitting on a desk chair, his head resting on his own shoulder. GoGo was at the end of a couch, curled into a catlike ball. Everyone's packs and uniforms had been dumped in a corner, and that odd frog - or chameleon, whatever it was - was sleeping on top of it.<p>

Eugene approached the pile, sifting through it to find his satchel. Only...it wasn't there.  
>"Where is it?" he muttered, panic setting in. Roy hadn't gotten it, had he? He must've. Eugene groaned. "Okay, screw these kids. I <em>have <em>to get that satchel!"  
>He promptly headed to the door, but a quiet voice stopped him before he could leave.<br>"Where are you going, Flynn?"  
>Blondie.<br>"Nowhere," he whispered. "Go back to sleep."  
>"Are you going to leave me alone here?" she asked. In the moonlight that streamed through the open door, he saw the fear and disappointment in her eyes. "No, Blondie. No I'm not. It's okay."<br>She stood up and stretched, padding over in her bare feet. "You can be honest with me. What were you going to do?"  
>He sighed. "I was going to go retrieve my satchel. Roy took it."<br>"I'll go with you."  
>"No, you won't," he shook his head. "It's way too dangerous."<br>"I saved us earlier. Don't you say it's too dangerous," she corrected him.  
>He half sighed, half chuckled. "You do have a point there, Blondie."<br>"Then I'll come with you!" she insisted.  
>"Alright," he glanced towards the kids. GoGo twitched in her sleep. "But we need to hurry."<p>

As they walked the few blocks to Roy's house, Rapunzel noticed him rubbing his head an awful lot. "You really are hurt, aren't you?"  
>"I'll be fine, like I said. Keep quiet, okay?" he said. "I don't want to get caught by someone who thinks we're up to no good."<br>"Okay," she breathed.  
>When they got to the old house, Eugene carefully entered in through a broken window. Rapunzel stood guard outside, ready to alert Eugene and run if need be. The task of grabbing the satchel was no problem. Roy was still faceplanted in the kitchen, so Eugene simply found the satchel and made off with it quickly.<p>

They walked quietly along the sidewalk, Eugene greedily holding the satchel as if it were the most important possession in his ownership. "I'm sorry I got you into all of this, Flynn," Rapunzel finally said quietly.  
>"Huh?" he asked.<br>"Well...you're obviously not enjoying yourself, and you're hurt and I should have never done this! Now my mother's at large, and we're in a totally strange place, and..it's all my fault."  
>"Hey," he softened, seeing the girl's angst. "It's okay. Don't beat yourself up over it, especially over anything to do with me."<br>"But it's my fault-"  
>"I don't care," he shook his head. "Everything will work out, you'll see."<br>She sniffed and rubbed at her cheeks. "You think?"  
>"I know. And if it makes you feel better about things, I'll let you tend to my head when we get back."<br>"I'd be happy to. Head injuries bleed a lot, you know," she told him.  
>"How do you know so much about injuries?" he asked.<br>She paused for a minute. Could she trust him? "There's something I need to tell you. My hair? It's so long because I have magic hair that glows when I sing."  
>Alright, was the girl drunk? High? Eugene shook his head. And what was the correlation between hair length and how magical it was? And why did <em>that <em>have anything to do with medical knowledge?!  
>Laughing, Rapunzel shook her head. "I'll show you when we get back to the mansion."<p>

She was true to her word. When they got back in Fred's mansion, she led him to a room they'd called a _bath room_.  
>"You can't tell anybody, okay? And just...don't freak out."<br>Well, this didn't sound promising. Eugene nodded, patiently letting her drape the end of her braid over his head. This girl was insane.  
>"<em>Flower, gleam and glow; let your power shine. Make the clock reverse, bring back what once was mine. Heal what has been hurt, change the fates' design; save what has been lost, bring back what once was mine, what once was mine..." <em>  
>The only thing that was warmer than the girl's honey-smooth voice was the sensation in his head, right where his injury was. He put a hand over his head, and it came back free of blood. Scouring his fingernails around the gash, he found none, and it didn't even hurt.<br>"Wha-"  
>"Please-don't-freak-out!" she exclaimed, grabbing his wrists to catch his attention. He pulled them away from her, tucking them close to his ribs.<br>"I'm not freaking out, are you freaking out? 'Cause I'm just extremely interested in your hair and the magical qualities it possesses, how long has it been doing that exactly?" he let loose, all in one breath.  
>She laughed quietly. "Forever, I guess? Mother said when I was a baby, people tried to cut it. They wanted to take it for themselves. But...once it's cut, it turns brown and loses its' power. A gift like that...it has to be protected." she pulled aside her braid, revealing a small brown tendril that hugged the soft skin of her neck. "That's why mother never let me - that's why I never left, and..." she sighed. She hadn't meant to let that information go.<br>Eugene felt terrible. "You never left that tower?" she nodded, giving him a guarded, almost scared, gaze. "And you're still going to go back when this is all over with?"  
>"No!" she exclaimed firmly, but then her bravado melted away. "...Yes? Ugh, it's complicated! I don't know what to think, Flynn." she buried her face in her hands, and he watched her with empathy. This poor girl had never left her tower! No wonder she seemed so worried he was going to leave her. No wonder she was so jumpy, so innocent, so...<em>Rapunzel<em>. Whoa. He even remembered her name.  
>"Eugene," he blurted before he could stop himself.<br>"Huh?" she asked.  
>No going back now. "My real name is Eugene Fitzherbert. Someone might as well know. Just..don't tell anyone else, okay? It could ruin my whole reputation."<br>She grinned. "Wouldn't want that!"  
>"Well, a fake reputation is all a man has!" he teased, and she grinned.<br>"Why were you calling yourself Flynn, though?"  
>He sighed. He didn't want to go through this tonight. "I'll spare you the sob-story of poor orphan Eugene Fitzherbert. It's a little bit of a...it's a little bit of a downer." Instead of letting it go, she scooted closer to him, perching on the edge of the bathtub, and watched him, completely enraptured. Chuckling, he glanced affectionately at her before allowing the memories to take him. "There was this book. A book I used to read every night to all the younger kids. <em>The Tales of Flynnigan Rider. <em>Swashbuckling rogue, richest man alive...not bad with the ladies, either, not that he'd ever brag about it, of course," he added, leaning to whisper it suggestively. Rapunzel leaned away in surprise, giggling.  
>"Was he a thief, too?"<br>That hit him hard. His role model, the guy he'd named himself after...he wasn't a thief. "Well...no. Actually, he was the richest man in the world. He could do anything that he wanted to do, he could go anywhere he wanted to go. And-and for a kid, with nothing...well, it just seemed like the better option." Rapunzel's shoulders slumped at this, and she felt terrible for the man's childhood. It made her miss her own mother. Did he miss his mother and father? He caught her sad gaze, and grinned. "Don't tell anyone about this, either, okay?"  
>She nodded. "For the record? I like Eugene Fitzherbert <em>much <em>better than Flynn Rider." She didn't mean the name. She meant the personality. This guy...the one who teased and acted concerned over her...she liked this guy better than the arrogant, cocky Flynn who was only out for himself. She could trust him. She wondered what the warm feeling was that currently spread from her heart to her toes and up through her fingers to her head, making her face blush.  
>This hit Eugene hard, as well. He got the full meaning, and he could feel himself falling for the girl. He couldn't fall in love with her, he'd made a deal with himself! But if this was love - the warm feeling and urge to protect her at all costs; not desire and lust...maybe he liked love. This was the first time in years he'd been able to be himself; it was the first time in nearly fifteen years anyone had uttered his real name!<br>"Well..then you'd be the first. But thank you," he nodded, standing up. "Now, we need to get some rest." he held his hands out to her, and she took them to stand up.  
>"Thank you," she smiled, and caught his eyes with hers. He almost lost himself in her gaze, and she in his, but he was the first to snap out of it.<br>"Y-you're, ah, you're...welcome." he fumbled for the door handle, pushing the door open a little loudly, and held the door for her before shutting the bath-room light off (another twenty-first century marvel - electric lights) and crashing for the night.


	4. Chapter 4

The next morning, their best plans were laid. They wanted to get this over with.  
>"I've also found out something interesting - I was doing some research with the structure of our time machine. If these two don't fall in love with each other in the twenty-first century," Hiro paused for dramatic flair. "It must mean that if they fall in love in the twenty-first century, there's a distinct possibility that they'll remember one another and their feelings for one another when they're back in the right time era."<p>

Eugene cleared his throat. "That's not going to happen though." He'd been struggling with his feelings over Rapunz-_Blondie-_all morning long. He couldn't deny that he had a thing for her. But he had to fight that. He wasn't suited for married life, and she didn't deserve the crappy life she'd have as his wife. The fact that he'd already considered those factors told him that he was in a little too deep.

At his words, Rapunzel felt her heart sink. What was this feeling? She knew disappointment, she knew sadness. She knew what it felt like to cry herself to sleep because she didn't know if Mother truly loved her. But this feeling of-of disappointment...it was so deeper-rooted than her previous feelings of disappointment. She didn't quite understand why she was feeling this way. Eugene caught himself glancing over at the girl, and saw that his words had stung her. He immediately wished he could take them back.

Hiro watched this interaction smugly. "Yeah, yeah. Keep telling yourself that, Fitzherbert."  
>GoGo snapped a bubble. "You're in deep. Both of you."<br>Honey stepped in. "Let's not focus on the romance for now, guys, we're embarrassing them. Let's just talk about eliminating the villains."  
>"Roy?" Rapunzel asked.<br>"And-" Hiro slapped a hand over Fred's mouth.  
>"And then we'll get you guys home. Yes." Hiro said, covering up what Fred was about to say: <em>And Gothel. <em>They couldn't lose Rapunzel's trust now, and that would be enough to do it.

When they left the mansion, they donned their gear. Baymax, who had gotten scans of both Roy and Gothel yesterday, got suited up as well and prepared to fly out.  
>"I'm not getting on that thing," Eugene pointed out.<br>"Come on, I bet it'll be awesome!" Rapunzel bounced up onto her bare toes and clasped her hands, grinning excitedly at him. "It'll be fun."  
>"I don't trust anything or anyone, especially not robots, or whatever you called him-"<br>"I am Baymax, your personal healthcare companion. I am indeed a robot. Tadashi built me with a huggable design. My armor undermines my nonthreatening, huggable design, but you need not be afraid. My batteries are charged and I will not let you fall."  
>Eugene stared silently at the robot, but Rapunzel smiled and hugged the robot. "Yes, Baymax. You're so sweet, giving all of us rides! You tell 'im. He's a scared-y cat."<br>"Hey!" Eugene couldn't help the quick spurt of jealousy he felt over Rapunzel fawning over the thing. _A robot_, of all things! A robot couldn't even _feel!..._he wanted to be a robot.  
>"Well, it's true, Eugene," she smiled at him, and he had to shake his head, hiding a grin when he realized how pretty her eyes were when they shimmered with excitement.<p>

"Alright, fine." he moved to crawl carefully onto Baymax's back, crouching uncertainly for a moment before holding out a hand to help Rapunzel up. Pascal eyed him warily. "Oh, tell your guard dog to calm down, Blondie."  
>She reached to the top of her head and patted the green chameleon. "It's alright, Pascal!"<br>Hiro took his place in the middle of Baymax's wings, and Honey Lemon and GoGo crowded onto Baymax's back. Wasabi clung to one leg and Fred to the other. With that, he started to fly.

After the initial terror, Eugene peered over Baymax's wings. "You know, this is pretty cool. Who made this?"  
>"My brother, Tadashi, made Baymax. I made everyone's armor, including Baymax's," Hiro explained.<br>"Huh. Cool. What do your parents think of you guys crimefighting?" Eugene asked.  
>Hiro swallowed. "I don't know. They died when I was three. I live with my Aunt Cass. She's okay with it, I guess - I don't really talk about it with her."<br>Eugene pitied the young kid. "That's rough, bud. Sorry I brought that up."  
>"It's fine," he shrugged, but he changed the subject quickly, turning to talk with Honey Lemon.<br>Rapunzel was leaning a little too far out over Baymax's back, staring at the ground far below.  
>"Hey, be careful, Blondie," Eugene cautioned her. "Don't fall."<br>She looked up at him with a grin. "I won't. This is _amazing_! Best day ever!" she giggled.  
>He smiled pleasantly at her, but she didn't catch it. She was too busy filling her eyes with the scenery.<p>

"I have found a match. Haggris, Gothel. Five hundred years old. ..." Baymax read off Gothel's medical history.  
>"Five hundred years?" Rapunzel asked. "That's wrong! She's only thirty."<br>Honey Lemon swallowed. "She used a magical golden flower to keep herself young and beautiful for hundreds of years. But one day, in the kingdom of Corona - where the lanterns come from - the Queen was sick, and she was going to have a baby. Search parties were sent out to find the magical golden flower, which resided in a little overhanging cliff by the sea. When they found it, Gothel followed them to see where they were taking her precious flower. They were taking it to the Queen, of course. The water infused with the magical flower's healing properties saved the Queen, and she gave birth to a healthy baby girl. You. But Gothel was so vengeful that when night fell, she broke into the castle and kidnapped you. She locked you in the tower for your entire life, using your hair to keep herself young and beautiful. That's why she never let you leave."  
>Everyone fell silent. Eugene stared at Rapunzel in horror. <em>She <em>was the lost princess? No. It couldn't be.  
>"No," Rapunzel shook her head. "No, that's not true. Gothel would <em>never <em>do such a thing!"  
>Honey Lemon bit her lip and then stuck her hand into her sack, pulling out a photograph of a mural. The mural was of the King and Queen of Corona, holding a little baby with long blond hair and green eyes.<br>"That can't be me," Rapunzel shook her head vehemently.

They landed, and they climbed off of Baymax. "I don't know who you are, or what you want of me, but I'm not the lost princess, and Mother would never do such a thing!"  
>Honey produced another, larger photograph. "This is a family heirloom that hangs in my room. The one that hangs on my wall is the original, painted on canvas. It's one of your paintings."<br>Rapunzel took it and stared at it. "It...it is. But I always painted on the walls..."  
>She held up a small, tattered flag. "This is Corona's flag. And finally...this is a painting of you, sometime after you went home to your parents. The canvas of <em>that<em> hangs in my foyer."  
>Rapunzel took the flag and stared at it. Grabbing the photograph of the first canvas, she studied both of them intensely. She'd never seen the Corona flag, but the painting was a near-perfect replication of something she had in her tower at home. It was different, she knew, because the girl had short brown hair and a blue dress. But it was quite obviously her work - nobody else shared her painting style. That she knew of, anyway.<br>Her eyes widened, and she finally turned to the last photograph. Pascal squeaked in recognition.  
><em>It's me. It's me with short brown hair and-and the King and Queen, and...a baby. Eugene's there too, and-and Pascal! <em>She gasped, dropping the photograph abruptly. "Is that our baby?"  
>Honey nodded. "Isn't it adorable?"<br>"Whose baby?" Eugene asked.

Rapunzel pointed to the photo, and he picked it up. "It's..."  
>He stared at the photo as if nothing else mattered. Something just <em>clicked<em> for him. He'd always wanted a family. He'd been fighting these feelings for her, but...but what if she could be the family he'd always wanted? Always hoped for? Always cried himself to sleep over as a child? Sure, she wouldn't be a parent, but if she loved him...that's all he'd ever wanted: to be loved. And that little baby she was holding...it was theirs! The idea of fatherhood was foreign and terrifying to him, but he knew that he'd have to take a swing at it if he would fall in love and marry this girl. The only thing that confused him was the short brown locks. He didn't mind it, though - her blond hair was long and annoying. Maybe she'd finally chopped it. He glanced up at her and caught her staring at him.  
>"Wh-what?" he asked.<br>"You're teary-eyed," she said quietly. "What's wrong?"  
>"Just..nothing, Rapunzel," he said.<br>_Rapunzel. Rapunzel, not Blondie. _That weird, warm feeling flowed through her veins once more.  
>"Well..let's go figure this out, then." she took the picture and gathered everything else up once more, handing them to Honey Lemon. "I'm the lost princess?" she asked.<br>"Yes. The lanterns are meant for you."  
>"And Mother...isn't my mother?"<br>"No. She stole you out of vanity and kept you from your family. Of course, it was only fate that you were, because that was the only way you'd ever end up meeting Eugene," Honey smiled indulgently at the two.  
>Her face darkened. "What's the rest of the story?"<br>"You meet Eugene, and after a rocky start, you fall in love. You get to see the lanterns, but you're soon found by the Stabbington brothers, who are working for Gothel. They knock you unconscious, Eugene, and send you in a boat with the crown, headed right for the prison. Gothel knocks them out, then, and takes Rapunzel back home. The Snuggly Duckling thugs, who you meet on your way to the kingdom, bail you out of prison with the help of that horse Maximus. You return to the tower, only to find Gothel's bound Rapunzel to a wall and has her gagged. You're stabbed in the side, by Gothel. Rapunzel pleads with her, and they finally work out a deal. Gothel will let Rapunzel heal you, but then she has to stay in the tower for the rest of her life, imprisoned. You took matters into your own hands, though, and cut her hair. Gothel dies, because her hair was the only thing keeping her alive, and then you die after professing your love to one another. But Rapunzel cries over you, and somehow, the last bit of magic that was left in her is contained in her tears, which hit your cheek, and you come back to life. You take her to the castle...and I'll let you guys find out how the rest of your story goes. You live happily ever after." Honey Lemon grinned.

Rapunzel looked at Eugene, determination written across her face. "You stay right here with Baymax. I'm not letting you get hurt."  
>He shook his head. "And you'd be dumb to go to Gothel yourself! Roy wants me and Gothel wants you. We both have to go, and we both have to fight them."<br>"We'll give you ten minutes to capture them, but any later than that, we'll come in and do whatever it takes to keep you guys safe. You have to send them into the portal if you capture them alive. The portal? See this little pebble of a device? Throw it at the person you want to send back in time, and they'll disappear. Just because they're gone doesn't mean they're dead-they're just thrown back in time. Remember, if someone dies, they _will not_ appear back in their proper time era, and the space-time continuum and entire lives will be altered. Stay safe." Hiro explained.  
>"You can do this, Goldilocks!" Fred cheered.<br>"Can you take care of Pascal? I don't want him getting hurt." she handed her friend over to the tall, geeky boy she'd learned was actually fairly harmless, and he gave her a cheerful grin.  
>"This is <em>awesome. <em>I'm getting to hold a chameleon that's from the, what, seventeen, eighteen hundreds? GoGo, did you ever think about that?!"

Next, Rapunzel looked shyly at Eugene. "I guess we better go clean up this mess, then."  
>"Yup," he didn't meet her eyes, but walked alongside her. Hiro handed both of them the pebble-like portal devices, and off they went to track down Gothel and Roy. <p>


	5. Chapter 5

Rapunzel and Eugene found Gothel and Roy all too soon.

"Flower! Oh, my flower!" Gothel cried. "Come, come! You escaped your bodyguard yesterday and since then, I've been so worried, oh, my dear girl-"  
>"I'm the lost princess." Rapunzel stared at her. "He's not my bodyguard, Mother - or should I even call you that?"<br>Gothel mocked her. "Oh, do you even hear yourself? What nonsense has this thief instilled in you?"  
>"The kids we're with. They told me the truth,"<br>"And you believe them? Flower, do you not know? The world is dark, and selfish, and cruel. They'll eat you alive." she reached to hug her.  
>This was Roy's cue.<br>The second Eugene saw Roy heading his way, he threw his portal device. A black hole appeared, and the tall menace was swallowed up whole. He braced against the vacuum action of the portal, but then realized what Gothel's plan was. Whirling around the second he could, he saw Rapunzel was being held at knife-point. The portal device fell on the ground. Rapunzel, in her surprise, had dropped it. It hadn't been hard enough to activate it, thank goodness, but it was out of her reach.  
>Gothel proudly reached the pointed toe of her right shoe towards the device, crushing it into the asphalt.<br>"One move and she's dead, Flynn. I don't need her anymore. Roy helped me find a serum at SFIT. It was experimental, but I'm fine so far. I don't need her. I'm immortal!"  
>"You only loved me for my hair," Rapunzel said. She felt as if the knife was grinding into her heart. She'd loved this woman her entire life, despite her abuse. "You were wrong about the world. You were wrong about <em>me. <em>I'm not a child, and I'm not stupid! How could you?"  
>"You <em>are <em>stupid, darling. How other way would I be able to keep you locked up for almost eighteen years?"

That was enough ammunition for Rapunzel. She threw her head backwards, cracking her head off of Gothel's mouth.  
>The old hag doubled over into herself and screamed expletives at the girl, but Rapunzel had escaped her grasp.<br>"Eugene, run."  
>"I'm not leaving you-"<br>"I can't let you die!" she shoved him away.  
>"And I can't let <em>you <em>die," he grabbed her arm. "If I go, you're coming with me."  
>"Then-then get help or something! Please," she gave him a pleading look, and he backed away. Help. He'd get help. Rapunzel would be okay. She could stall. She-she'd be okay.<p>

He backed away slowly, but then ran as fast as he could.  
>"Th...the portal device. It's broken. Roy's gone, but she-she broke the portal, and she..." Eugene puffed. He'd just raced half a mile. He was terrified for his girl.<br>"Calm down," Honey Lemon walked over and put a hand on his shoulder. "Catch your breath and then tell us."  
>"No!" he shook his head vehemently. "She needs help...<em>now<em>!" He finally managed to spit the whole story out.

"I don't have any more devices, Eugene!" Hiro cried. "What do we do now?!"  
>Wasabi swallowed. "Either knock her out or..."<br>GoGo armed herself with her razor-sharp orbs. "Do what we gotta do. We won't off her."  
>"Then let's go! Come on!" he cried, turning around and running as quickly as he could.<p>

When they got back to the location that he'd left them, they were gone. Of course.  
>"Baymax, scan for Gothel!" Hiro demanded.<br>"I am scanning. Scan complete," he paused. "She is exactly seven-tenths of a mile ahead of us; she is heading for SanFransokyo Ins-"  
>"Okay, Baymax! Go! Come on, let's go, we don't have any time to lose!" Hiro yelled. The team started running on foot; Baymax shuffling along behind them and updating them on their proximity to Gothel.<p>

They made it to SFIT before they even caught sight of Gothel. She was holding Rapunzel's arm tightly, but masking it so it seemed as though Rapunzel was only helping an elderly woman across the street. Eugene didn't want to know what she'd done to her to make her seem so calm.  
>"Rapunzel!" Eugene cried, racing out into traffic after her. Frantically dodging and stopping cars, he ran for her.<br>"Come along, flower," she jerked on Rapunzel's arm, and Rapunzel merely had the chance to meet his eyes before she disappeared inside the building.  
>Crashing through the doors himself, he found an empty hallway.<br>"The med lab," Wasabi yelled. "It's to the right!"  
>GoGo and Eugene tore off down the hallway, hanging a right and seeing a door swing shut.<br>"This way," she pointed and somehow managed to pick up speed.

Inside the lab, people were scattering.  
>"Outside, mortals!" Gothel screamed. Rapunzel was cowering in a corner as Gothel swung her dagger around, threatening anyone who didn't listen. They all scattered, nearly pushing Eugene and GoGo to the ground as they tried to escape. "We're going to use up the rest of that...potion. Rapunzel, you take care of anyone who comes in. If you don't, you'll die." she spat bitterly in the girl's face, and Rapunzel flinched away, gasping as Gothel dropped the dagger into her lap.<br>"Rapunzel," GoGo hissed. Rapunzel looked up at her as soon as Gothel's attention was turned, and nodded to let her know she saw them. Turning to Eugene, she jerked her head. "Don't do anything stupid. Follow my lead."

GoGo slipped into the room with surprising (and admirable) stealth. Rapunzel handed her the dagger, and then GoGo nodded to Eugene. He slid inside and waited for the next move, nodding to tell Rapunzel to stay put. GoGo ducked from the room with the same amount of stealth as she had entered with. She was leaving, obviously, to take the dagger out so Gothel couldn't get to it again.  
>Gothel drank the liquid in a bottle...but then her hair turned gray.<br>"Wh-" she whirled around and Eugene jerked a thumb towards the door. Hiro stepped inside. _Grinning like the genius little brat he is_, Eugene thought with begrudging admiration.  
>"I called Lee, one of the tech assistants, and told him the situation. He replaced the experimental formula. Of course, since it was merely experimental, there was an anecdote created. You just drank the anecdote."<br>Furious, Gothel slammed the bottle to the floor and whirled towards Rapunzel.  
>"Useless! Absolutely useless!" she screamed at the girl. Before anyone could react, she turned and lunged instead for Eugene, falling on top of him and pulling a sharper, longer dagger from her cloak. She dug it into his stomach, twisting and grinding it until the whole thing was embedded into him. Out of instinct, he grabbed frantically for his stomach, pushing her off of him. Gasping, he ripped it from his skin and rolled away.<br>Screaming, Rapunzel crawled to him on her hands and knees. "Eugene!" He glanced up to see her leaning over him, frantically fumbling for the end of her braid.  
>But before he could even utter a warning, Gothel was up and grabbing at the top of her head. She grabbed the blonde by a handful of hair and dragged her to her feet.<br>"Look what you've done, Rapunzel! Now go and find the portal before your other friends get hurt. I know they're all out there somewhere."  
>Eugene looked up to see Hiro standing at the door, helpless and scared, and he waved, mouthing 'get out of here!'. Hiro nodded and ran, his sneaker soles squeaking on the floor in his haste.<br>"J-just let me heal him. I'll do whatever you want, just let me heal Eugene. I don't care what happens to me, just let me save him," Rapunzel begged. She was crying openly.  
>"No, Rapunzel. It's not worth it. Go. I'm sure-I'm sure they have technology for this. Run."<br>Her eyes widened as it sank in. _Run. _Run, not 'obey your mother'. Gothel's grip loosened slightly as she realized the same thing Rapunzel just had. Taking the opportunity, Rapunzel twisted in Gothel's death-grip, yanking away from her and elbowing her midsection in one fluid motion. Crying out, Gothel bent over herself and gasped breathlessly, clutching her stomach.  
>Eugene grit his teeth, grasping his side as he stood. Instead of running past him, Rapunzel wrapped an arm around him. "Come on. Can you run?"<br>He shook his head, leaning as if he needed her there to support him. He didn't want to slow her down, he wanted her to run and get out of there right _now. _He didn't care what Gothel did to him. But then he realized he still held the dagger's handle in his sticky, bloodied hand. He turned her and pulled her into a bear hug, swallowing an agonized groan of pain as her slim form pressed up against his injury.  
>"Eugene-let me go, we have-" she tried to pull away, caught in her adrenaline rush and the urge to get away, but then she felt all the weight leave her head. She wasn't lightheaded, so what had happened? She backed away, looking down past the splotches of Eugene's blood on her-<em>Honey Lemon's-<em>shirt to see the dagger fall next to her braid.  
>Eugene watched with momentary satisfaction, admiring his work as Rapunzel's short, spiky hair turned brown, just like in that picture. He collapsed and rolled onto his side, coughing up blood and clutching his stomach as he felt even more blood gush from the gaping wound.<br>He pressed his eyelids shut as he listened to the old hag turn to dust. Rapunzel cried out in horror as she watched the woman who'd raised her disappear before her eyes. She reached out as if she could somehow save her, despite all the terrible things she'd done, but then she heard a groan that could barely be human, and Eugene focused on her frantic face as she turned, collapsed on her knees, and leaned over him.  
>"No-no-no-no, Eugene, stay with me! Hiro! Honey, Wasabi, GoGo, <em>someone<em>, help! Please! Oh, Eugene, don't leave me, I'm right here, stay with..." then, his world turned black.

* * *

><p>"You're awake!" a girl cried.<br>Eugene's bleary eyes focused and instead of gawking at his surroundings, he stared at the petite girl that was leaning over him. "Huh...Rapunzel?" He was in a bed, with tubes hanging from his arms. And he was wearing some sort of...night _gown?_ "What-"  
>"Please-don't-freak-out!" she exclaimed hurriedly. "You're okay. They fixed you right up! You have to stay hooked up to those machines until you're better."<br>"_Who _fixed me?"  
>"The twenty-first century," she teased, but then she sighed. "Oh, I'm <em>so <em>happy you're okay!"  
>He grinned. "I'm glad <em>you're <em>okay. By the way, did I ever tell you I've got a thing for brunettes?"  
>She giggled, blushing and reaching to stroke his own dark, messy locks. A nurse bustled in, and she let her hand drop to her side, watching as the male tended to him, giving him some liquids and monitoring as he consumed them. Taking some notes, he left.<p>

As soon as everything was quiet once more, Eugene turned to look at the pretty girl at his side, who still wore Honey Lemon's shirt that he hadn't meant to bloody up. "Rapunzel?"  
>"Yes?"<br>"Do you know how you were talking about dreams when we were going to Fred's mansion that first day? About how the - your - lanterns are your current dream?"  
>"Yeah?" she asked.<br>"Well...what happens when that's over? What are you planning?"  
>"I don't know," she bit her lip. "I never really considered it."<br>"You can go find a new dream, I suppose. And...just for the records? I wanted an island of my own, surrounded by money and nothing else, but that was before. That was Flynn Rider. But now..._you_'re my new dream." he felt his face flush with this revelation.  
>She smiled, her heart swelling as that odd, that <em>beautiful<em> warmth spread through her once more. She stood and leaned over to put her lips awkwardly against his. She knew this was some form of affection, she just didn't know how to perform it. He grinned against her mouth and reached up with his arm - the one that wasn't a pincushion for all the weird tubes and wires that hooked him to all sorts of machines - to guide her head gently to one side, returning the kiss and allowing her to grow comfortable with this new thing. When their lips parted, her smile only grew.  
>"And you're mine. But you still have to take me to see those lanterns when we go home."<br>"Of course, princess," he grinned, a little dazed from the kiss. Or maybe he'd blame the painkillers.

She grinned, nibbling her lip. "That felt nice."  
>"What did?"<br>"The kiss," she ducked her head and blushed.  
>He chuckled quietly, grimacing a little as his injury twinged. "No need to be embarrassed. Was that your first?"<br>"Mmhmm."  
>"Well, it was an honor to give you your first kiss," he winked, and she giggled, her face growing so red her freckles stood out very distinctly against her cheeks and nose.<br>"And you'll share many more in the future, I'm sure," Honey Lemon's voice came, and Rapunzel squeaked in surprise, her face growing even redder. "How's the patient?"  
>"Uh, I'm well," Eugene, surprised at the presence of the tall girl, muttered.<br>Giggling, she shook her head. "I didn't see _the _kiss, don't worry. It's a shame, though, I was really hoping to see you guys kiss at least once. But you know, seeing as everything that's happened...I guess I'll settle for just getting to watch my great-great-great-great...you-get-the-gist grandparents fall in love."  
>Laughing, Rapunzel stood to hug her. "Thank you for showing me who I am. I would have never gone against Gothel if it weren't for you. And I'm really sorry about your clothes, they're a little...bloody...from Eugene."<br>"It's okay!" Honey's bubbly mood was contagious, much like Rapunzel's. "And you're most certainly welcome! It was _amazing_ to help my great-great...-you-know grandmother realize who she really is. Oh, and Pascal is still with Fred, in case you were worried."  
>Rapunzel gasped. "Oh! I bet he's so worried-"<br>"No," Honey Lemon giggled. "They've been playing video games and eating way too much. He's just fine - I just checked up with them. He'll keep him 'til Eugene's out of the hospital and you're ready to go back home."  
>"Okay," Rapunzel nodded, relieved.<br>Honey spoke for a few more minutes, but then left the two of them to their own devices. Rapunzel stared off into the distance, a hand resting idly on the edge of Eugene's bed as she considered her future. Was she ready to make the switch from a peasant locked in a tower to a princess with way too much freedom? Let alone ruling a kingdom and marrying and...  
>She felt a calloused hand cover her own, and she looked up to see Eugene's hand was on top of hers. "Hey. Everything will be okay, I promise."<br>She grinned. "How did you know?"  
>"You get this weird look when you're thinking. I like it," Eugene added, smiling and squeezing her thin hand.<p> 


	6. Chapter 6 Epilogue

"Are you ready?" Honey asked, adjusting clear goggles over her head. They'd given Rapunzel back her dress, and Eugene had been released from the hospital. He was healed up and they were almost ready to go home.  
>"Yep!" Rapunzel held her chameleon close, and Eugene had his satchel, with Rapunzel's crown safely tucked inside, slung across his torso.<br>"Oh! Oh, oh, wait! Before I pull that lever..." she ran over in her platform heels and giggled. "Say ancestors!" She took a photograph of sorts with both of them with a device Eugene still hadn't gotten quite used to - a smart phone? It hadn't seemed very smart when he'd attempted using it.  
>She raced over and plugged the cell phone into a computer, pressed a few keys, and then grabbed something from another tech-y device.<br>"Here! You guys can take that and keep it! If you remember your time spent here, you'll remember me this way!" she gave them both wide smiles before grabbing them each into a hug. "Okay. Okay, okay, okay. I'm letting you guys go now. I promise." she took a deep breath and shoved the lever towards the ground. They watched the Big Hero 6 calmly as they waited for the portal to suck them in.

Moments later, Rapunzel and Eugene, as well as Pascal, the satchel and crown, and a few papers and a pair of goggles were spat out from the mirror.  
>Rapunzel tumbled and rolled across the floor of her tower, coughing and trying to catch her breath. When she had, she sat up and looked around, her hand going to her hair. It was still short! She looked over at Eugene. Did he remember her? He sat up, putting a hand gingerly over his mostly-healed, but still-sore wound, and then his eyes met hers. "We're back in our normal time era! Are you okay?"<br>"Uh-huh!" she beamed at him as she stood and scampered over to help him up. Pascal popped his head out of the satchel - he'd ducked inside the leather bag moments before Honey pulled the lever; he'd been scared and thought it a safer place - and squeaked. "Are you okay, Eugene?"  
>He nodded, and before he could say or do anything else, Rapunzel grabbed his shirt collar and swung up onto her tiptoes, grabbing him into a kiss. He pulled away, chuckling, and rested his forehead up against hers while he slipped an arm around her waist, using the other to stroke her cheek. He let their lips meet in a slightly gentler kiss than the one she'd just given him, and Pascal ducked back into the satchel, turning a shade of magenta. When the kiss ended, he sighed.<br>"I suppose we should get you home, princess."  
>She smiled and bent to pick up the satchel before grabbing his hand and leading him to the tower window, where they started their tricky descent.<p>

* * *

><p>Two days later, they knew they had missed the lantern celebration, but after a very teary-eyed homecoming, the King and Queen - Rapunzel's parents - announced a <em>second <em>lantern festival in celebration of the Lost Princess' return. And so it ended up that Rapunzel found herself standing on a balcony, clean and in a blue dress like the one Honey Lemon had shown her in the painting's photograph, with Eugene holding her hand and her parents standing close by her; her father with his hands on her shoulders and her mother with her arm slipped through Rapunzel's free arm. As they watched the lanterns soaring and twirling into the sky, she couldn't help but wonder what the future held.

* * *

><p>Two days after Rapunzel and Eugene's return back to their appropriate time era, Honey Lemon sprawled out on her bed, hugging a pink fuzzy pillow and staring at two pictures she held in her hands.<br>One hand held the photograph she'd taken with Rapunzel and Eugene - it was _so cool _to have taken a _picture _with her great-great-great-great...so on and so forth...grandparents! She'd miss them, and wondered if they had remembered each other after being sent back in time; there was no way for them to find out that variable for certain.  
>The other hand held a photograph she'd taken with Tadashi Hamada. She bit her lip and wondered what their happily ever after could have been like. Rolling over onto her belly, she set them both down on the stand beside her bed and took the ear buds out of her ears. "I guess we'll never know the answer to either of those questions," she mumbled as she drifted off to sleep, cuddling her pillow and plunging herself into sweet dreams.<p> 


End file.
